MEET UNCLE TONY

I photographed him throughout Sarah & Ben's wedding at Brinkburn Priory.

At the start of the day

His story was just one thread of the wedding day, and a hundred such threads make up the whole story of the day. At any one time during the wedding I'm actively pulling together a dozen or so of these threads, often into single images.

Just before leaving for the ceremony

The older I get, the less I like labels, but if I must describe this approach to wedding photography it would be documentary or perhaps storytelling.

Those are buzzwords in the wedding industry at the moment, and I'm sure there are many people who slap them on their website to help with SEO or seem like they are on trend.

I try to dig a bit deeper.

Giving away his niece

All of these photographs are unposed, the better to allow the character of the subject to show itself. The timing is spread throughout the entire day, to show the ups and downs of emotions.

Some are colour, some are black and white. The subject is alone, or with people. They are aware of the camera, but mostly they are not. All the photographs are clues to their personality, what they thought, how they felt.

During the speeches

Some wedding photographers think that they should only show photographs of joy, people smiling at the camera. That's certainly a big feature of any wedding day, but's it's not the only emotion.

Weddings evoke many memories. They trigger thoughtfulness, sadness, anxiety, love, anger, exhaustion and excitement.

And everyone reacts differently.

The party

I make no judgements as I make my photographs. I simply record the scene, and capture the mood as I felt it so that the couple can relive the day.

Often, with the passage of time, the photographs take on new and deeper meanings, so much so that the true value of good wedding photography only reveals itself years after the day.